Nippon TV Tokyo Verdy Beleza (日テレ・東京ヴェルディベレーザ,Nittere Tōkyō Verudi Berēza)[a] is a women's professionalfootball team that plays in Japan'sWE League. It is based in theKita,Itabashi,Inagi,Hino,Tama, andTachikawa wards of Tokyo.[3]
They have won 52 major Asian and national titles, the most of any team in the WE League. They have produced many players for the women's national team, youth national team and other teams in Japan and abroad.
The club was founded as the women's team ofYomiuri SC (currentlyTokyo Verdy) byYomiuri Shimbun in 1981 and namedYomiuri SC Ladies Beleza.[4] Its team name, "Beleza", is Portuguese for "beauty".[4] It was a founding member of theNadeshiko League (the Japan Women's Football League) in 1989 and is the only Japanese women's club to have never been relegated. In 1999, the club was transferred toNippon Television[5] and the club name was changed toNTV Beleza. In 2000, the team name was changed toNippon TV Beleza.[4] In September 2009, Nippon TV withdrew from management. However, the club signed a new contract fornaming rights with Nippon TV,[6] and since 2020 its name has been Nippon TV Tokyo Verdy Beleza. The team joined theWE League for the 2021-2022 season as a founding member.
1981: Founded as the women's team of Yomiuri Soccer Club, the predecessor of Tokyo Verdy, Yomiuri Soccer Club Women's Beleza.[7] Participated in the Tokyo League Division 2. Initially, the team was created for female fans of Yomiuri Club with the aim of "getting closer to the players", but by providing full-scale coaching, the team aimed to popularise and improve women's football. In 1984, the team was promoted to the Tokyo League Division 1. The team has participated in the Empress's Cup All-Japan Women's Football Championship since the 5th tournament (1983).
1989: When the Japan Women's Football League was launched, the team participated as one of the founding members (6 clubs). They won the opening match against Shimizu FC Ladies (9 September). In this first season, they came second behind Shimizu FC Ladies.[b]
1990: From the second season, Beleza won four consecutive championships, and with players such asAkemi Noda,Asako Takakura,Takako Tezuka,Shiho Onodera, andNami Otake, they were always competitors for the championship in the season and the All-Japan Women's Football Championship.
1994: They signed a sponsorship contract with Seiyu and changed their name to Yomiuri Seiyu Beleza.
1998: The sponsorship contract with Seiyu was terminated and the name was changed to Yomiuri Beleza.
1999: The sponsor changed to NTV FC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Nippon Television Network Corporation.[c] The name was changed to NTV Beleza.
2000: When Nippon Television Network changed its logo and introduced a new corporate identity to unify the abbreviation to "NTV", the team became NTV Beleza ( NTV FC became a joint venture with Inagi City and others in 2001). During this time, Beleza had not won the league since 1994, but theNikko Securities Dream Ladies, who had won three consecutive league titles in 10th season in 1998, were disbanded at the end of the same year, and Prima Ham FC Kunoichi, who won the 11th season in 1999, was reorganised and downsized asIga FC Kunoichi in 2000, which marked the so-called "winter period of women's football".[d] In the 12th season, they won their first championship in seven years. They won the league three times in a row until the 2002 season.
2004:Homare Sawa,Eriko Arakawa, Yoe Sakai (who changed her name to Yoe Kato after her marriage in 2007), andYayoi Kobayashi were selected for the Athens Olympics women's football team (Nadeshiko Japan), and played key roles in supporting the team.
2005:Naoko Kawakami transferred fromTasaki Perule FC. The team won the L-League for the first time in three years with an undefeated record of 18 wins and 3 draws in 21 matches, and also won the Sunny Country Okayama National Athletic Meet[e] and the Empress's Cup All-Japan Women's Football Championship. This was the first time in the history of Japanese women's soccer that a single team had won ade facto triple crown without losing a single match.[f] They also won the Nadeshiko Super Cup, held before the season, in a penalty shootout, making them the strongest club in the league with a "quadruple crown".
2006: The team suffered their first league defeat in two years in the final league match against Tasaki Perule, but won all three playoff matches to win consecutive championships. They became the first team to win the "100 Million Yen Tiara" that was created that year.
2007: They won their 10th league championship of the season, and also won the Nadeshiko Super Cup,Nadeshiko League Cup (established that year), and the 29th All-Japan Women's Football Championship, to achieve a "quadruple crown."
2008: With players called up to the Japan Women's National Team for the Beijing Olympics, the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup, and the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup, it was a difficult season with many injuries, but the team came together to win their fourth consecutive league championship and the 30th All-Japan Women's Football Championship.
21 October 2009: Nippon Television sold its shares in Nippon Television Football Club (later changing its name to Tokyo Verdy 1969 Football Club), which operated Beleza, to an outside company, and withdrew from managing the club.[8] However, Nippon Television retained the naming rights to the team, and the team name remained "Nippon Television Beleza".
2010: Verdy was temporarily placed underJ.League management after falling into a serious management crisis. The crisis was averted by the formation of a new management team with Buddy Planning Research Institute as the largest shareholder.[9] However, further cost-cutting measures were taken, and Beleza, which won the league championship for the first time in two years that year, did not renew the contracts of professional players Homare Sawa[g] andShinobu Ohno, the season's top scorer. As a result, four players, including Chika Yukari andChiaki Minamiyama, who were Nadeshiko members despite being amateur players, left Beleza and all transferred toINAC Kobe Leonessa, which had won the 32nd All-Japan Women's Football Championship that year and was managed byKei Hoshikawa, who had been fired as Beleza manager in July 2010. In 2010,Yuki Nagasato transferred to an overseas league in January before the start of the season, andRumi Utsugi in July, whileEriko Arakawa transferred toUrawa Red Diamonds Ladies in March, and Mai Nakaji retired after the season ended in December, meaning that many of Beleza's home-grown main players had left the club.
2011:Akemi Noda, who had been the new coach since November of the previous year, continued to lead the team, and the team was able to integrate veterans such as Nadeshiko Japan memberAzusa Iwashimizu,[h]Yayoi Kobayashi, andKanako Ito with young forwards such asMana Iwabuchi,Asano Nagasato, andNanase Kiryu. Although the team missed out on consecutive league titles, they finished second behind INAC Kobe Leonessa. Iwashimizu was a key player in the team's firstFIFA Women's World Cup victory in 2011 and their qualification for the main tournament in theLondon Olympics qualifiers, and she began to attract a lot of attention from the media. In October, Beleza signed a professional contract with Iwashimizu until January 2015, and Iwashimizu was assigned to the club production department in preparation for future participation in club management.[10] Iwabuchi also played in the World Cup and Nagasato in the Olympic qualifiers, gaining experience that would help improve the team's strength. At the end of the year, in the 33rd All-Japan Women's Football Championship, they lost toAlbirex Niigata Ladies in the semi-finals.[i]
2012: On 9 September, they defeated INAC Kobe in the final of the Nadeshiko League Cup 2012 to win the tournament for the third time in a row. In November, they participated in the firstInternational Women's Club Championship as League Cup winners and placed third in the tournament.
2015: On 1 January, they defeated Urawa in the Empress's Cup final to win their 11th championship in five years. They also won the Nadeshiko League for the first time since 2010.
2016: On 3 September, they defeatedJEF United Chiba Ladies in the Nadeshiko League Cup final to win their first championship in four years. They also won their second consecutive Nadeshiko League championship.
2017: They won their third consecutive Nadeshiko League championship. In the Empress's Cup, they defeatedNojima Stella Kanagawa Sagamihara in the final to win their 12th championship in three tournaments.
2018: They won the Nadeshiko League for the fourth consecutive year and the Nadeshiko League Cup for the fifth time in two years. They also won the Empress's Cup the following year, defeating INAC Kobe in the final, achieving a triple crown of domestic titles.
2019: They won the Nadeshiko League for the fifth consecutive year, and the Nadeshiko League Cup for the sixth time in two consecutive years. They also won the Empress's Cup, beating Urawa Red Diamonds Ladies in the final, achieving a triple crown of domestic titles. They also won the AFC Women's Club Championship, achieving a quadruple title in the year.
2020: They won the Empress's Cup for the third consecutive year. They announced that they would change their team name to Nippon TV Tokyo Verdy Beleza and have a new team emblem.[11] On 15 October, they were approved to join the new WE League, which would be launched in 2021.[12]
2021-22 season: They lost to Urawa at home in the opening game of the WE League, and lost to Chiba L in the quarterfinals of the Empress's Cup, missing out on their fourth consecutive Empress's Cup victory, and finished without a title for the first time in eight years.
2022–23 season: In the WE League Cup final, they were trailing 3-0 to Urawa and lost 2-4 on penalties, finishing as runners-up,[13] but defeated INAC Kobe 4-0 in the Empress's Cup final to win their 16th title in two tournaments.[14]
In the 2024-25 season, they beatJEF United Chiba 3-0 on the last day of the season. In theWE League, that made them tied withINAC Kobe Leonessa on points and superior on goal difference, thus causing them to win the league for the first time since its inception in 2021.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
^"W League Regulations, Chapter 3, Article 22" (revised on 22 November 2023)[2]
^They tied with Shimizu FC with 17 points (8 wins, 1 draw, 1 loss), but were behind them on goal difference.
^This was due toYomiuri Shimbun increasing its investment in Verdy.
^What was particularly serious was that the Japanese national team missed out on qualifying for the2000 Sydney Olympics after being eliminated in the group stage at the1999 FIFA Women's World Cup, in which eight Beleza players, including Otake, Sakai, and Sawa, participated.
^The National Sports Festival is usually held on a prefecture-by-prefecture basis, but it does not necessarily have to be a "selected team" made up of players from multiple clubs and schools within the prefecture; individual teams can also participate. In 2005, Tokyo (Beleza) and several other prefectures participated as individual teams.
^Tasaki also achieved the "triple crown" of the league, the National Athletic Meet, and the All-Japan Women's Championship in 2003, but at that time it was a mixed team that also included players from theTakarazuka Bunnys Ladies Soccer Club at the National Athletic Meet.
^Of the eight Beleza players who played for the2008 Beijing Olympics and the five who played for the2010 Asian Games, Iwashimizu is the only one who remained with Beleza in 2011.
^Yomiuri Soccer Club ~ Tokyo Verdy 40th Anniversary Commemorative Magazine Publishing Committee, ed. (2010).クラブサッカーの始祖鳥 読売クラブ～ヴェルディの40年 [Archaeopteryx of Club Soccer Yomiuri Club - Verdy's 40 Years] (in Japanese). 東京ヴェルディ1969フットボールクラブ (Tokyo Verdy 1969 Football Club).{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: editors list (link)
^"子会社の株式譲渡に関するお知らせ" [Notice regarding transfer of shares of subsidiary company] (Press release) (in Japanese). Nippon Television Network Corporation. 16 June 2009. Retrieved5 May 2013.
^"東京ヴェルディ会長就任について" [Concerning the appointment of the president of Tokyo Verdy] (Press release) (in Japanese). Buddy Soccer Club.
^"岩清水梓選手プロ契約締結のお知らせ" [Announcement of the signing of a professional contract with Iwashimizu Azusay] (Press release) (in Japanese). Tokyo Verdy 1969 Football Club. 5 October 2011. Retrieved5 May 2013.
^"日テレ・東京ヴェルディベレーザへの名称変更 及びエンブレム変更のお知らせ" [Notice of name change to Nippon TV Tokyo Verdy Beleza and emblem change] (Press release) (in Japanese). Tokyo Verdy. 20 January 2020. Retrieved20 January 2020.
^"WEリーグ、11クラブの入会申請を承認" [WE League approves applications for membership of 11 clubs].Japan Football Association (in Japanese). 17 October 2020. Retrieved29 April 2021.
^"浦和Lが初代WEリーグカップ女王へ！ 3点ビハインドから猛追、PK戦を制して勝利" [Urawa L becomes the first WE League Cup queen! After a three-goal deficit, they make a comeback and win the penalty shootout].www.football-zone.net (in Japanese). 1 October 2022. Retrieved9 February 2023.
^"サッカー女子 皇后杯 日テレ・東京ヴェルディベレーザが優勝" [Female Soccer Empress's Cup Nippon TV Tokyo Verdy Beleza wins].NHK News (in Japanese). 28 January 2023. Archived fromthe original on 28 January 2023. Retrieved9 February 2023.
^ab"選手・スタッフ 日テレ・東京ヴェルディーベレーザ" [Players and Staffs | Nippon TV Tokyo Verdy Beleza] (in Japanese). www.verdy.co.jp. Retrieved20 May 2025.
^"日テレ・東京ヴェルディベレーザへの名称変更 及びエンブレム変更のお知らせ" [Notification of name and emblem change to Nippon TV Tokyo Verdy Beleza] (Press release) (in Japanese). Tokyo Verdy. 20 January 2020. Retrieved22 September 2022.
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